Leon had a lot of fun exploring the immediate neighborhood surrounding his Slovak grandparents' house. The top entertainment item on the list: their two cats. He did not call them "meow" or any variation of "kitty" in either language but rather "tah" - of course, right? It makes no sense but I guess that's what it sounds like to him. The cats, on the other hand, were less than enthusiastic about Leon's presence and they barely tolerated his squeaky shoes, running away when he came anywhere closer than two feet. Luckily, Leon did not find this frustrating but rather entertaining and did not mind squeaking on as he chased after them. This was frequently very entertaining.
He also tried to make himself useful, in the typical one-year-old way of mimicking all behaviors he thought looked interesting or important. Picking up apples that fall off the trees early (and threaten the lawn if not collected) and then placing them in a toy dump truck was something Dari was prepared to do the minute we arrived in Dulice. Leon wasted no time in joining the party, promptly picking out a smaller dump truck in Dari's now-shared lineup. Efficiency was hardly the ordering principle and most apples that got collected were dumped a few feet over or thrown, with a splash, into the pond. But Leon thought he was doing something very helpful and, naturally, no one questioned it :). Sometimes, Leon pretended to be a load of apples himself and allowed his big brother to cart him around the garden (under close supervision).
Leon also got a haircut while in Slovakia but not the view, not the cat, not the rotation of four adults, nothing could keep him still long enough. If you don't look super closely, it looks fine. Conveniently, most people are distracted by how much the haircut brought his appearance closer to Dari.
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